1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an oil deflector, and more particularly, to an oil deflector that has movable teeth mounted on a front surface support portion and a rear surface support portion of a ring support supporting the outer periphery of a turbine shaft, wherein even if the shaft is vibrated in the state of a transient operation upon the activation of a steam turbine, the movable teeth are moved forward and backward in accordance with the vibration directions of the shaft.
2. Background of the Related Art
Basically, an oil deflector is disposed on the outside of a bearing housing of a power generation turbine and serves to prevent oil at the inside of the bearing housing from leaking to the outside of the bearing housing.
FIG. 1 is a schematic view showing a configuration of a conventional oil deflector.
As shown in FIG. 1, the conventional oil deflector includes a ring support 3 adapted to surround the outer peripheral surface of a shaft 1 of a generator or turbine and teeth 5 mounted on the inner peripheral surface of the ring support 3 in such a manner as to come into contact with the inner peripheral surface of the shaft 1 to prevent the leakage of oil.
According to the conventional oil deflector, however, minute clearances exist between the teeth 5 and the shaft 1, and accordingly, oil may leak through the minute clearances.
So as to gently supply oil to the shaft 1, especially, if oil forcedly blows, oil may spray to the air.
Further, fine dust in the air may be introduced into the minute clearances, and at this time, the introduction of the fine dust causes the friction and vibration between the shaft 1 and a bearing (not shown), which further makes the bearing and shaft abraded early, thus lowering the performance of the generator and turbine requiring precision and causing their malfunctions.
So as to solve the above-mentioned problems of the conventional oil deflector, another conventional oil deflector is shown in FIG. 2.
As shown in FIG. 2, another conventional oil deflector largely includes a ring support 30, a plurality of teeth 50, and brush seals 60. The ring support 30 is disposed to surround the outer periphery of a shaft 10, the plurality of teeth 50 is fixedly mounted on the inner periphery of the ring support 30 in such a manner as to come into contact with the outer periphery of the shaft 10 so as to prevent lubricating oil of a bearing (not shown) supporting the shaft 10 from leaking to the air side from the bearing side, and the brush seals 60 are mounted on the front and rear outermost sides of the teeth 50, respectively.
The ring support 30 has a front surface support portion 31 and a rear surface support portion 33 spaced apart from each other by a given distance on the front air side thereof and the rear bearing side thereof.
Further, the plurality of teeth 50 is mounted along the inner peripheries of the front surface support portion 31 and the rear surface support portion 33, respectively, and the brush seals 60 are mounted on the front outermost side of the teeth 50 disposed along the inner periphery of the front surface support portion 31 and on the rear outermost side of the teeth 50 disposed along the inner periphery of the rear surface support portion 33, respectively.
Each brush seal 60 is configured wherein bristles are continuously wound around a linear support bar in the longitudinal direction of the support bar, thus preventing oil from spraying and further preventing fine dust in the air from entering minute clearances.
According to another conventional oil deflector, however, if the turbine is initially operated or in a transient operating state, the shaft 10 is unstably rotated to cause vibration, and at this time, mutual interference between the shaft 10 and the brush seals 60 occurs due to their eccentricity, thus producing frictional heat and static electricity therebetween.
So as to remove the leakage problem of the brush seals 60 of the conventional oil deflector from the steam turbine, accordingly, it is desirable that the radial clearances between the shaft 10 as a rotating body and the brush seals 60 be small, but as the radial clearances between the shaft 10 and the brush seals 60 become small, the number of occurrences of mutual interference and the contacted time between the shaft 10 and the brush seals 60 are increased to cause the brush seals 60 to be abraded early.
Due to the abrasion of the brush seals 60, further, the clearances between the shaft 10 and the brush seals 60 become large, and an amount of steam leaking through the large clearances is increased to lower the efficiency of the turbine. In addition, oil excessively leaks and sprays through the open clearances, thus undesirably causing environmental pollution problems.
It is therefore noted that the mutual interference between the shaft 10 and the brush seals 60 and the teeth 50 still occur due to the vibration of the shaft 10, which produces frictional heat and static electricity between the contacted portions therebetween. As a result, various problems may occur in the order of the deformation of the shaft caused by the frictional heat, the early abrasion, the increment of the clearances due to the early abrasion, the invasion and attachment of foreign materials due to the increment of the clearances, the increment of vibration due to the attachment of foreign materials, the instability of equipment and the operation shutdown due to the increment of vibration, and the power supply troubles and recovery delay due to the operation shutdown.